Greetings Fellow Dice Fans!

Today, we’re going to take a look at Half-Elf Bard, Master Lords’ Alliance from the Dungeons and Dragons Faerûn Under Siege Starter set.

Ruling – Ability

The first ability on Half-Elf Bard is Experience. Experience grants a +1A/+1D token on the character’s card when a monster is KO’d by you on your turn. The character with Experience must be active at the time the monster is KO’d. A monster is a character that has the ‘Monster Flag‘ on it’s character card. The counters do not leave the character card unless an ability or other game effect would remove them. Characters cannot gain more than one Experience token (each) per turn. Characters with the Experience keyword are called Adventurers.

The second part of Half-Elf Bard’s ability is the one I really want to focus on. When Half-Elf Bard attacks, each attacking character die will get +1A and +1D for each other different character that you control.

Half-Elf Bard will also get the bonus, as long as there is a different character active when the Half-Elf Bard attacks. The ability says that each attacking character gets the bonus so it does not exclude the Half-Elf Bard from getting the ability bonus.

This ability counts individual characters, not individual dice. If you have three different characters (Half-Elf Bard, Sidekick, and Kobold), then your characters would get +2A and +2D when they all attacked. If you had one Half-Elf Bard, two Sidekicks, and two Kobolds, then your characters still only get +2A and +2D when they all attack.

Each Half-Elf Bard that attacks will be able to trigger its ability, much like Black Widow, Tsarina. If you were to attack with two Half-Elf Bard, one Sidekick, and one Kobold, each Half-Elf Bard ability would give each attacking character +2A and +2D for a total of +4A and +4D.

Example:

~ I have two Half-Elf Bard dice, one Morphing Jar, two Sidekicks, and one Miri Riam.~ I attack with all six character dice.~ My first Half-Elf Bard will trigger.~ Each dice will see three other attacking characters. The first Half-Elf Bard’s ability will grant them each +3A and +3D.~ My second Half-Elf Bard will trigger.~ Each dice will see three other attacking characters. The second Half-Elf Bard’s ability will grant them each an additional +3A and +3D.~ My characters will each have a +6A and +6D given to them by the two Half-Elf Bards’ abilities.

Official Sources

Competitive Play Rating

Not much needs to be said about this card in regards to competitive play. It speaks for itself. The reason I gave it four and half and not five stars is because while the card is great, it’s not a card for every team in the meta. I’ve seen tons of teams utilize this card effectively, but not every team would benefit from the Bard. For example, my current Nova Ring team does not have a place for him and probably wouldn’t find him useful. I’ve seen him used to great effect on Poly Hulk variants and of course Blitz. So, he’s a fantastic card all on his own and can fit on almost any team out there as an additional ‘punch’ or as the star of the team.

Half-Elf Bard, Master Lords’ Alliance gets a competitive play rating of four and a half out of five stars.

Casual Play Rating

As long as you’re not bringing Bard Blitz, then Half-Elf Bard makes for a great casual card. It has a powerful ability that can boost any casual team’s damage output. Its purchasing cost is just right for its ability and the ability is easily explained. This character is great in limited play where players are only allowed to use Dungeons and Dragons cards, but is also really good on other teams outside of D&D. Another thing that makes this card so great for casual play is that it comes from the Faerûn Under Siege Starter set. Powerful cards that are included in starter sets help to give new players something strong to work with against other players that already have powerful cards. I would definitely recommend this card for any casual player of any skill level. Playing with or against this card helps teach players to play on a more strategic level as well.

Half-Elf Bard, Master Lords’ Alliance gets a casual play rating of four out of five stars.

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